200 pages
182 mm x 128 mm
90 mm cover flaps
Format: Paperback
ISBN 978-1-7392596-3-1
£12 (£3 p&p UK)
Special Edition
Book + Tote Bag 38 x 41 cm
Edition of 20
£25 (£3 p&p UK)
Special Edition
Book + T-shirt
Medium, 50 cm across chest
£40 (£2.50 p&p)
The Lives of the Artists, Susan Finlay
The more I think about it, art theory is no place for straights. And contrary to popular opinion you can’t be really poor—or poor without a safety net—and bohemian. Or live in a capital city and have a fun time all the time or even some of it. There was no good reason why Someone Else and I split up besides different senses of humour and views on economics - which are two no good major reasons...
'In Vasari’s soaring vision of art, the most-used adjective is ‘beautiful’. In Finlay’s tarmac-hugging account it is ‘posh’. This book is not an appraisal of perfection of an artist’s output, but a rummage through an improvised life full of so much besides art. What a wry, unsparing weave of formative episodes and structural ironies. What devil-may-care tilts at authority. No redemption or overcoming all odds here! This unvarnished world is marbled through with brilliance and shit.'
— Sally O’Reilly
Susan Finlay’s The Lives of the Artists is cool, sassy, angry, inventive, and hilarious. It’s a memoir but not as we know it.
— Andrew Gallix
"I have written a memoir and you may be in it" is hands down the best email subject line ever, if you're sending a book promo to everyone in your email contacts list.
I met Susan Finlay once, via university work, so although I was pretty sure I wouldn't appear in her memoir the subject line amused me enough to immediately order a copy.
Anyway, sorry, I don't appear in this book. Things and places that do appear: paintings, PowerPoint slides, ideas about art, ideas about Art, detailed accountings of the intersection between money, rent, and an ability to make or to think about art and writing, Nottingham, London, Berlin, universities and FE colleges, polo-necks, asymmetric clothing, the author's ability to take herself both completely seriously and not seriously at all, love, not-love, trains, Amsterdam, various teas, and many people who will recognise their own appearance in the text. The tone is an extremely dry kind of deadpan smart and funny which I immediately warmed to, and although I don't even know if this is really a memoir or an essay or a scrapbook I really loved it and I think you will too, especially if you're in it, which you probably are.
– Jon McGregor
'This arch anti- memoir of life as an artists is both comic and fascinating, as the narrator navigates personal and economic hurdles to sustain a creative life.'
- Sinéad Gleeson
Susan Finlay is an artist who writes poetry and fiction, most recently The Jacques Lacan Foundation, a White Review Book of the Year. Her work has been published in Worms, MAP, POETRY, and The Stinging Fly. Residencies include Open School East and the Freud Museum in London, Unlisted in Austin, and Callie's in Berlin.
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Electroclash playlist put together by Susan Finlay at the launch of her book The Lives of the Artists.
The more I think about it, art theory is no place for straights. And contrary to popular opinion you can’t be really poor—or poor without a safety net—and bohemian. Or live in a capital city and have a fun time all the time or even some of it. There was no good reason why Someone Else and I split up besides different senses of humour and views on economics - which are two no good major reasons...
'In Vasari’s soaring vision of art, the most-used adjective is ‘beautiful’. In Finlay’s tarmac-hugging account it is ‘posh’. This book is not an appraisal of perfection of an artist’s output, but a rummage through an improvised life full of so much besides art. What a wry, unsparing weave of formative episodes and structural ironies. What devil-may-care tilts at authority. No redemption or overcoming all odds here! This unvarnished world is marbled through with brilliance and shit.'
— Sally O’Reilly
Susan Finlay’s The Lives of the Artists is cool, sassy, angry, inventive, and hilarious. It’s a memoir but not as we know it.
— Andrew Gallix
"I have written a memoir and you may be in it" is hands down the best email subject line ever, if you're sending a book promo to everyone in your email contacts list.
I met Susan Finlay once, via university work, so although I was pretty sure I wouldn't appear in her memoir the subject line amused me enough to immediately order a copy.
Anyway, sorry, I don't appear in this book. Things and places that do appear: paintings, PowerPoint slides, ideas about art, ideas about Art, detailed accountings of the intersection between money, rent, and an ability to make or to think about art and writing, Nottingham, London, Berlin, universities and FE colleges, polo-necks, asymmetric clothing, the author's ability to take herself both completely seriously and not seriously at all, love, not-love, trains, Amsterdam, various teas, and many people who will recognise their own appearance in the text. The tone is an extremely dry kind of deadpan smart and funny which I immediately warmed to, and although I don't even know if this is really a memoir or an essay or a scrapbook I really loved it and I think you will too, especially if you're in it, which you probably are.
– Jon McGregor
'This arch anti- memoir of life as an artists is both comic and fascinating, as the narrator navigates personal and economic hurdles to sustain a creative life.'
- Sinéad Gleeson
Susan Finlay is an artist who writes poetry and fiction, most recently The Jacques Lacan Foundation, a White Review Book of the Year. Her work has been published in Worms, MAP, POETRY, and The Stinging Fly. Residencies include Open School East and the Freud Museum in London, Unlisted in Austin, and Callie's in Berlin.
Electroclash playlist put together by Susan Finlay at the launch of her book The Lives of the Artists.
© Joan Publishing